Our 2012 Fellows

Dana Anderson

Meet Dana!

Dana Anderson’s love of writing began at a young age. Throughout elementary and middle school, she kept journals and composed poems about her beautiful home high in the mountains of Colorado. She ‘published’ her own magazines and became a reporter for her school paper. Once in high school, Dana and her family moved to Sydney, Australia for several years, where she continued to write about the natural beauty that inspired her. When she graduated from her school in Australia, Dana knew that she wanted to pursue a degree in journalism so that she could capture the world’s poignant and impactful stories waiting to be told. Dana studied journalism and international media at the University of Colorado in Boulder, after transferring from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Both schools provided opportunities to explore the ways media can be used for empowerment and advocacy. She realized that as storytelling becomes more participatory, it becomes more meaningful and impactful. Dana’s journalistic dreams expanded to include the goal of bringing more voices into the media landscape.

Like her passion for writing, Dana has long held an all-consuming interest in India. During family trips to Singapore, the Little India district captivated her imagination with its cheerful atmosphere and bursts of color. Dana spent a year and a half at U.N. headquarters
collaborating with delegates while supporting an Indian-based NGO, which provided health and educational services for impoverished communities. At CU, Dana enrolled in classes on Indian
civilization, wrote research papers on media empowerment in India, and studied elementary Hindi.

Most recently, Dana received a University of Colorado Journalism grant to research the methods and effects of community radio as a means of empowerment. The grant funded a trip to
Andhra Pradesh in the summer of 2011 to observe a station managed by local farm women. Dana especially appreciated the educational role of the station, which is helping to change the
lives of the children she befriended at a nearby school. Dana’s article about the station was published in Eye See Media magazine.

Dana enjoyed writing for Women’s News Network during her last semester as an undergraduate student. She also worked as an editorial intern at the New Hope Natural Media, a
company that publishes magazines on natural health and wellness. As a teaching assistant for an upper-division global media course, Dana also helped students with research projects. She found
the experience of advising students, monitoring their progress and encouraging their enthusiasm to be incredibly rewarding.

Most of Dana’s favorite memories involve family adventures such as hiking sheep farms in New Zealand or exploring castle ruins in England. She can’t wait for the next chapter with
TMS and looks forward to combining her passion for education and storytelling with her love of India!

Kelly Adams

Here’s Kelly!

Kelly Adams studied Anthropology and Environmental Earth Science at Johns Hopkins University. She was interested in exploring the nature of human experience, and human experience of nature, ignited by a field study abroad in Natural and Cultural Ecology in Australia. The beauty she found in the ecological knowledge of indigenous Australians led her to pursue a senior thesis concerning Native American sacred lands of the United States in the context of environmental ethics, religious freedom, and self-determination for the indigenous population. Equipped with the lens of Anthropology, graduation became an opportunity to awaken daily life into a quest for understanding the diverse ways human populations encounter this Earth and life we inhabit. Through yoga she began to cultivate her own awareness, while also developing a respect for the potential of film/media to make visible the unity in our diversity of culture and experience. She went on to work on behalf of Culture Unplugged Studios, an online platform for documentary film – living in India and working towards the mission of promoting education and awareness through the film medium. Moving on from this position, she is excited to re-confront the Indian subcontinent in a hands-on role of creativity, connection, and empowerment for the youth. She believes the learning that will take place in the classroom will be one of reciprocity and mutual benefit, and is excited over the prospect of encouraging youth along their own path of creative discovery!

Emily Kwong

And Emily!

Emily Kwong graduated this past May with a B.A. from Columbia University, majoring in Sociocultural Anthropology with a concentration in Human Rights. Raised by a Chinese father and English mother, she is passionate about social justice, education, and journalism and hopes to dedicate her professional life to dignifying the human voice. She spent her spring semester junior year in Durban, South Africa, conducting an independent research project on the adaptation of oral traditions for digital media and storytelling as a form of heritage preservation. Through brief appointments teaching Life Sciences in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, Emily began to believe strongly in the capacity for education to affect social change and raise consciousness, both of self and of the world.

A lover of the arts and ardent listener of public radio, she was a beat chief for the Columbia Spectator and a licensed programmer for the Arts Department of WKCR FM New York, contributing regularly to a half-hour talk show about cultural events in New York City called “Arts and Answers.” She also co-produced and hosted “This Columbia Life,” a 2-hour radio show dedicated to the stories and sounds of undergraduate life at the university. Emily interned last summer at the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network (CPBN) Media Lab, gaining technical training for digital storytelling and assistant teaching at CPBN’s Youth Media Academy. This spring, she continued to explore a professional interest in youth media as an intern for World Savvy, helping plan the Global Youth Media & Arts Festival and visiting public schools throughout New York City. This affirmed Emily’s passion for educational justice and the capacity for media projects to impart reflective, self-affirming lessons that prepare student-artists for the 21st century.

She is deeply honored to be a fellow for The Modern Story, committed to putting the power of representation in the hands of young people (already possessed with most intimate knowledge of their environment), and transmitting their unique perspective to a global audience. She is grateful for many teachers who encouraged her own learning and validated her own voice when clouded with self-doubt. The belief of others is an essential kind of gift that is never forgotten and one she hopes to impart, even in a small way, to The Modern Story’s students and future storytellers.

Hyderabad Staff

Neha (Local Instructor)

Neha is from L.B. Nagar in Hyderabad and is pursuing a degree in her final year from Government College in Nampally. She specializes in 3DS max animation, Photoshop, web design, and many other softwares. Her hobbies are learning new and advanced software, reading books, and playing games. Neha learned computer skills and digital photography at a competitive institute through a not-for-profit, Technology for the People, which trains underserved Muslim women in Information Technology Skills with the goal of employment outside the home. Neha was trained by former TMS coordinator & Fellow, Ioana Literat in TMS’s methodology and curriculum and had worked in TMS classrooms for three consecutive semesters. She helped to produce a documentary about TFTP’s program and hopes to produce another about the issue of female education in her community.  Neha views TMS as the first step to her future and hopes to continue teaching in TMS classrooms.

Meet Neha from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Asma (Local Instructor)

Asma Allauddin is pursuing degree first year at Visionary Degree College, where she studies animation and 3D modeling. She has been a teaching assistant with The Modern Story for one year and loves collaborating with the TMS team. Asma was also trained by Technology for the People in Information Technology skills and by Ioana Literat in the TMS curriculum. She believes that it is important for her students to learn basic photography, videography, and computer skills, because the students benefit from working with both the technical and creative aspects of digital media, and gain abilities that prove useful for them in the future. In her free time, she enjoys photography, drawing, driving, and watching and playing cricket.

San Francisco Staff

Piya Kashyap & Remy Mansfield

Piya Kashyap & Remy Mansfield (Founders & Co-Directors)
Piya and Remy conceptualized and launched TMS after graduating as English & Creative Writing majors from Middlebury College. After completing the pilot phase of teaching at schools in Andhra Pradesh in the winter/ spring of 2008, Piya and Remy structured The Modern Story Fellowship and now run the program from San Francisco. Piya is a high school English teacher who teaches Global Anglophone literature at San Francisco University High School and is involved in International Educational initiatives. Remy works as an educational technology consultant for Adobe’s worldwide education team and focuses on their student and teacher training and certification programs.